Improvement in preparing blocks for wood pavement



HENRY M. STOW.

Improvement in Wood Pavement.

l NO. 12E-)#118,l ]7[1,// Patented Apr|9,1872.

HENRY4 M. STOW, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN PREPARING BLOCKS FOR WOOD PAVEMENT.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N o. 125,418, dated April 9, 1872.

SrEemrcArroN.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY M. STOW, of San Francisco, in the county of San Francisco and State of California, have invented anew and useful Method of Preparing Blocks for Wood Pavements; and I do hereby declare J[hat the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawing.

This invention consists in a new method of preparing paving-blocks for wood pavements, and is applicable to any pavement constructed of rectangular blocks, or blocks presenting, in cross-section, the geometrical figure of a rightangled parallelogram.

I first take a log of suitable lengthsay ten or twelve feet-in its natural cylindrical form, and center the two ends on suitable bearings, on which it can be made to revolve slowly. I then, by means of a circular saw, cut in at regular intervals of six inches, or equal to the desired depth of the blocks, annular cuts, not

` quite severing the log, but leaving a sufficient core at the heart toholdit together. The log should be mounted on a movable carriage, so that it can be moved longitudinally the proper distance after each cut of the saw 5 or two or moresaws may be employed on the same arbor,

at suitable distances apart, to saw the log into blocks of the desired length. After the log is thusnearly severed atproper intervals from end to end, it is removed from its bearings, and the sections are then completely severed by a crosscut-saw or other suitable means. These sections, of cheese-like form, arethen laid upon a level platform in a splitting-machine, and split into blocks of about four inches in thickness, or of whatever thickness may be desired, when said blocks are ready to be putdown in a pavement.

pletely severed, lying upon one of its iiat sides In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is with the grain vertical, and showing the line in which it is to be split; and Fig. 3 is a top view of a section of pavement laid of blocks thus formed.

These sections may be split in a machine similar to those in common use for splitting kindling-wood, but provided with a straight knife or parallel knives equal in length to the diameter of any log to be treated.

The drawing, Figs. 1 and 2, represents alog twenty-four inches in diameter, divided into sections A A of six inches in length, each section of which is to be split into four paralleloj gram blocks four inches thick, b b b b, and two slabs, b b', as shown in Fig. 2.

All the blocks with two parallel flat sides are suitable to be laid in apavement such as is represented in Fig. 3, while the slabs b may be used in constructing a cheaper and inferior pavement.

It is manifest that these blocks may be so set as to leave spaces between the rows to be filled with gravel or concrete, and they may be set on a board, sand, earth, or concrete foundation-bed.

The sap may be removed from each block l after being split out, or may be left on, in which case, if the wood is treated by any good preserving process, the sap will become as durable as the rest of the wood.

The sections severed from the log, as shown by Fig. 2, may be split into thin slats an inch thick, more or less, for wedges to be driven between the rows of paving-blocks, in pursu ance of the patent granted to me December 10, 1867, and reissued January 19, 1869.

By splitting said sections into blocks instead of sawing them, a considerable saving of lumber is effected, equal to all that would be conA verted into sawdust by sawing. When the section is split into narrow slats for wedges of not more than an inch in thickness this saving will amount to about one-fifth of the lumber. The splitting, also, will cost very much less than sawing.,

The logs may beisawed into sections on the ground where the lumber grows, and these @Errea sections will then be in a convenient form for ing logs into short sections and then splitting handling, and for transportation by land or said sections into paving-blocks, substantially Water to any place Where the pavement may as shown and described.

be laid. HENRY M. STOW.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is Witnesses:

The method herein described of eonstruet- J Os. L. COOMBS,

ing blocks for wood pavements, by rst sznw- J. J. COOMBS. 

